Software application customized for target market

ABSTRACT

A system and method are presented for customizing a software application for a target market. A request to access an application is received, by one or more computer servers, from a user. At least one of a preferred language of the user and a location of the user are determined by the one or more computer servers, and a target market is determined using the at least one of the preferred language of the user and the location of the user. The target market defines a language and a region. The application is rendered by the one or more computer servers by modifying at least one of a user interface of the application and a content of the application using the target market.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/309,813 entitled “SOFTWARE APPLICATION CUSTOMIZED FOR TARGET MARKET”and filed on Jun. 19, 2014.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the modification oroptimization of website content for a given market or locale.

BACKGROUND

A network is a collection of links and nodes (e.g., multiple computersand/or other devices connected together) arranged so that informationmay be passed from one part of the network to another over multiplelinks and through various nodes. Examples of networks include theInternet, the public switched telephone network, computer networks(e.g., an intranet, an extranet, a local-area network, or a wide-areanetwork), wired networks, and wireless networks.

The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and computer networksarranged to allow the easy and robust exchange of information betweencomputer users. Hundreds of millions of people around the world haveaccess to computers connected to the Internet via Internet ServiceProviders (ISPs). Content providers place multimedia information (e.g.,text, graphics, audio, video, animation, and other forms of data) atspecific locations on the Internet referred to as web pages. Websitescomprise a collection of connected or otherwise related web pages. Thecombination of all the websites and their corresponding web pages on theInternet is generally known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simply theWeb.

For Internet users and businesses alike, the Internet continues to beincreasingly valuable. More people use the Web for everyday tasks, fromsocial networking, shopping, banking, and paying bills to consumingmedia and entertainment. E-commerce is growing, with businessesdelivering more services and content across the Internet, communicatingand collaborating online, and inventing new ways to connect with eachother.

Websites may consist of a single webpage, but typically consist ofmultiple interconnected and related web pages. Websites, unlessextremely large and complex or exposed to unusual traffic demands,typically reside on a single server and are prepared and maintained by asingle individual or entity. Menus and links may be used to move betweendifferent web pages within the website or to move to a different websiteas is known in the art. The interconnectivity of web pages enabled bythe Internet can make it difficult for Internet users to tell where onewebsite ends and another begins.

Websites may be created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) togenerate a standard set of tags that define how the web pages for thewebsite are to be displayed. Users of the Internet may access contentproviders' websites using software known as an Internet browser, such asMICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER or MOZILLA FIREFOX. After the browser haslocated the desired webpage, the browser requests and receivesinformation for the webpage, typically in the form of an HTML document,and then displays the webpage content for the user. The user then mayview other web pages at the same website or move to an entirelydifferent website using the browser.

When a website administrator develops a website, they often have atarget market in mind. The target market is often associated with aparticular geographical region, such as a group of customers in aparticular region or country. Given that target market, the websiteadministrator would usually prefer to create the website with contentlikely to be suitable for individuals visiting the website from thetarget market. However, the tools made available to assist in websitecreation and design are often configured to generate websites havingcontent suited more to the location of the company supplying the toolthan the website administrator or the target market for the website.

For example, a website administrator may wish to construct a websitedirected to customers located in China. However, if the websiteadministrator uses a software application provided by an Americancompany to develop the website, the software application will generatecontent (e.g., copy, stock multimedia, default web page templates, etc.)more suited to an American target market than a Chinese target market.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system that may be used to optimizewebsite content for a target market.

FIG. 2 is a screenshot showing a user interface enabling a websiteadministrator to provide information describing a business associatedwith a website.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an example method by which a targetmarket for a website of a website administrator can be determined.

FIG. 4 is a screenshot showing an example user interface for a websitebuilder application enabling a website administrator to select from anumber of available templates.

FIG. 5 depicts an example webpage of a template.

FIG. 6 is a screenshot showing a view of a website builder applicationthat enables a website administrator to incorporate a widget into awebsite.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for incorporating shoppingcart functionality into a website, where the shopping cart is tailoredto a particular target market for the website.

FIG. 8 is a screenshot showing a shopping cart function in a websitewhere the shopping cart function has been configured for a particulartarget market.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will now be discussed in detail with regard to theattached drawing figures that were briefly described above. In thefollowing description, numerous specific details are set forthillustrating the Applicant's best mode for practicing the invention andenabling one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention.It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art that the presentinvention may be practiced without many of these specific details. Inother instances, well-known machines, structures, and method steps havenot been described in particular detail in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring the present invention. Unless otherwise indicated, like partsand method steps are referred to with like reference numerals.

In many cases, websites are developed using tools and libraries providedby third parties. For example, a hosting provider may often provide awebsite builder tool or shopping cart software to assist a websiteadministrator in constructing and publishing a website. Often, however,these tools are configured to generate content that is more suited tothe location in which the hosting provider resides than the location inwhich the target audience for the website resides (i.e., the targetmarket for the website).

Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a system and methodconfigured to determine a suitable target market or locale for aparticular website, and then generate and make available content andapplications or widgets for incorporation into the website that aresuited to that target market. The content may then be incorporated intothe website manually, or may automatically be incorporated into thewebsite upon being requested by a user.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of system 100 that may be used to practice thepresent invention. A computer network 102 may be a collection of linksand nodes (e.g., multiple computers and/or other devices connectedtogether) arranged so that data may be passed from one part of thecomputer network 102 to another part of the computer network 102. Thecomputer network 102 may span the entire world and allow communicationfrom any point in the world to any other point in the world where thecomputer network 102 exists. Examples of computer networks 102 includethe Internet, the public switched telephone network, computer networks(e.g., an intranet, an extranet, a local-area network, or a wide-areanetwork), wired networks, and wireless networks.

The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and computer networksarranged to allow the easy and robust exchange of information betweenwebsites 104 on hardware servers 106 and Internet users 108 and websiteadministrators 110 on client computers. Hundreds of millions of peoplearound the world have access to client computers connected to theInternet via Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Content providers may place multimedia information or content (e.g.,text, graphics, audio, video, animation, and other forms of data) atspecific locations on the Internet referred to as websites 104. Thecombination of all the websites 104 and their corresponding web pages onthe Internet is generally known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simplythe Web.

For Internet users 108 (e.g., individuals that use computers to accessthe content on one of websites 104) and website administrators 110(e.g., individuals that manage, modify, update, and reconfigurationwebsites 104) alike, the Internet continues to be increasingly valuable.Prevalent on the Internet are multimedia websites 104, some of which mayoffer and sell goods and services to individuals and organizations.Websites 104 may consist of a single webpage, but typically consist ofmultiple interconnected and related web pages. Websites 104, unless verylarge and complex or having unusual traffic demands, typically reside ona single hardware server 106 and are prepared and maintained by a singlewebsite administrator 110, which may be an individual, group ofindividuals, or entity (although websites 104 residing on multiplehardware servers 106 are certainly possible and even necessary in somecases). Menus, links, tabs, etc. on the website 104 may be used to movebetween different web pages within the website 104 or to move to anentirely different website.

Websites 104 may be created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) togenerate a standard set of tags that define how the web pages for thewebsites 104 are to be displayed. Internet users 108 may access contentproviders′, such as businesses, websites 104 using software known as anInternet browser, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, MOZILLA FIREFOX,or GOOGLE CHROME.

After the browser has located the desired webpage, the browser requestsand receives the content of the desired web page, typically in the formof an HTML document, from server 106 and then displays the web pagecontent for the Internet user 108 on the client computer using thebrowser. The Internet user 108 may then view other web pages at the samewebsite 104 or move to an entirely different website using the browser.

Some website administrators 110, typically those that are larger andmore sophisticated, may provide their own hardware server(s) 106,software, and connections to the Internet. But many websiteadministrators 110 either do not have the resources available or do notwant to create and maintain the infrastructure necessary to host theirown websites 104. To assist such individuals (or entities), hostingproviders exist that offer website 104 hosting services on one or moreservers 106. The hosting providers or other third parties may alsoprovide one or more software applications 114 to assist a websiteadministrator 110 in constructing their website 104. The softwareapplications 114 may include website builders for conventional and/ormobile-oriented websites 104, checkout or purchase processing software,marketing tools, and other software widgets that can be incorporatedinto the website 104.

The software applications may be provided by one or more applicationservers 112 that are in communication with server 106. Applicationsservers 112 may be implemented as separate computer servers from server106, and so may be distributed over a geographical region. Or, in othercases, application servers 112 may be implemented on or by server 106.

System 100 includes a content database 116. Content database 116 is incommunication with server 106 and stores content that may beincorporated into one or more of websites 104. The content stored incontent database 116 may include media 118, which may include images,video, and music suitable for incorporation into websites 104, programs,links to third party content, and the like. Within content database 116,the content, including media 118, can be associated with particularmarkets. One or more website templates may be defined that include anumber of different web pages including default content selected fromcontent database 116. The templates themselves may also be associatedwith one or more target markets.

In many instances, the association of an article of media 118 with aparticular market indicates that the media 118 either depicts or isassociated with an element of the target market. For example, media 118may be associated with a particular target market if the media 118includes or depicts the same language as that of the market or depicts ascene either associated with the market or located in the market. Media118 may be associated with a single target market, or a number ofdifferent target markets.

Content server 116 may also store a number of widgets 120 that can beincorporated into websites 104. Widgets 120 may display content onwebsites 104 or otherwise modify the content depicted via websites 104.In some cases, widgets 120 may include small programs that can beembedded within a website 104 to modify the operation of the website104. The content generated by the widgets 120 may be content created bythe widgets 120 themselves, or retrieved from third party sources.Example widgets 120 includes FACEBOOK plug-ins, daily weather forecastplug-ins, TWITTER plug-ins, games, YOUTUBE plug-ins, clocks, and thelike.

As in the case of media 118, the widgets 120 may be associated with oneor more target markets. The association of a widget 120 with aparticular target market may indicate that the widget 120 displays textin a language or depicts other content associated with a particulartarget market. Alternatively, or in combination, the association of awidget 120 with a particular target market may also indicate that thewidget 120 is popular within the target market. The widgets 120 may beassociated with one or more target markets in a similar fashion to media118.

Using the present system, website administrator 110 may access server106 for the purpose of hosting, creating, or modifying a website 104. Todo so, the website administrator 110 may log into an authenticationwebsite provided by server 106. Once authenticated, the websiteadministrator 110 can execute one or more applications 114 that areconfigured to assist in the process of creating, editing, and managingwebsite 104, for example, by incorporating one or more media 118 intowebsite 104. Additionally, the website administrator 110 may incorporateone or more widgets 120 into the website 104 to depict desired content.Alternatively, the website administrator 110 may execute an application114 configured to assist the website administrator 110 in marketing orotherwise advertising the website 104.

Either before or while the website administrator 110 constructs or editswebsite 104, the present system 100 is configured to identify a targetmarket for the website 104 or website administrator 110. The targetmarket generally describes a geographical region in which theanticipated consumers for or visitors to the website 104 reside. Thetarget market may include a particular country, region (either containedwithin a single country or being located across portions of multiplecountries), state or county, city, or other defined region.

In the present system, the target market identifies both a geographicalregion and a language. The target market may be specified, for example,according to the BCP-47 industry format, which defines a standard fortag identifiers for location and language. Accordingly, in regions wheremany languages may be spoken, the target market can set forth not onlythe geographical region in which the target market resides, but alsowhich of the several spoken languages in the geographical region ispreferred.

In some embodiments, the website administrator 110 may explicitly setforth or define the target market for website 104. For example, thewebsite administrator 110 may establish a customer account with ahosting provider providing server 106 before creating website 104. Thecreation of a customer account may involve the website administrator 110supplying various customer account details that are stored by thehosting provider in customer records database 122. When creating thecustomer account (or updating it at a later date), the websiteadministrator 110 may explicitly inform the hosting provider of thetarget market for the website 104. This may involve the websiteadministrator 110 specifying a particular target language for thewebsite 104 as well as a target geographical region. The websiteadministrator 110 may select the target market in which the majority ofcustomers or potential customers for the website 104 are located.

In other cases, the website administrator 110 may specify a targetmarket without establishing or otherwise modifying customer accountinformation. For example, when the website administrator 110 accessesthe server 106 for the purpose of creating a new website 104, modifyingan existing website 104, or performing any other task, the server 106may depict a user interface (e.g., a web page) that includes a menu(e.g., a pull down menu or radio button menu) that allows the websiteadministrator 110 to select a target market that may include both atarget region and a target language. Example choices of target market inthe menu include: “United States—English”, “Estados Unidos—Espanol”,“Singapore—English”, “Canada—English”, “Canada—Français”, and the like.Once selected, the server 106 may save the selected target market (e.g.,in a cookie stored on the computer of the website administrator 110 forlater use. Although this selection may not be made explicitly inconjunction with the action of creating a website 104, once theselection is made, server 106 may be configured to remember theselection and use the selection as the target market for any websites104 created by the website administrator 110 going forward.

Although the website administrator 110 may explicitly set forth thetarget market for the website 104, in other embodiments, the targetmarket can be determined or inferred based upon information acquired(e.g., by server 106) either about the website administrator 110, abusiness of the website 104 or website administrator 110 or otherwiseassociated with the website 104, the content of the website 104, and thelike.

In some embodiments, for example, server 106 is configured to determinea location of the website administrator 110 based upon the IP address ofthe computer used by the website administrator 110 to access server 106.Using a suitable geolocation service, for example, the server 106 cantranslate the website administrator 110 IP address into a location. Theserver 106 may then use a look up table to translate that location intoa target market. For example, if the website administrator 110 isdetermined to be located in a particular country, the market may be setto that country with the language being set to the predominant languagein the region. The look up table may contain a number oflocation-defined target markets, where the potential target markets mayinclude various regions, such as countries, regions, cities, and thelike, with one or more languages being defined for each region.

Although the server 106 may perform a location lookup using the IPaddress of the website administrator 110, in cases where the websiteadministrator 110 is communicating with server 106 using a mobiledevice, such as a smart phone, the mobile device may provide locationinformation directly to server 106, where the location information maybe determined by a location service (e.g., a global positioning system(GPS)) running on the mobile device. In that case, rather than convertan IP address into a location via a geolocation service, the service 106can use the location information provided directly by the mobile deviceto determine a location of the website administrator 110.

In some cases, server 106 may use the language preferences of thewebsite administrator 100 (potentially in combination with otherinformation) to determine the target market. Where the websiteadministrator 110 interacts with the server 106 using a web browser, forexample, the web browser may have a language preference setting that isaccessible to the server 106. Alternatively, other language preferencesettings specified in other applications running on the computer deviceof the website administrator 110 may be accessible to the server 106. Inthat case, the server 106 can retrieve the language preference settingfrom the web browser or other application and use the languagepreference setting to identify a target market. Again, this may be doneusing a lookup table that translates languages into target markets.

The language preference setting may also be used to select from multiplelanguages that may be used in a particular target market region. Forexample, if the server 106 determines that the website administrator 110is located in the United States, in which English and Spanish may beprominent languages, the language preference setting can be used toselect between the two prominent languages. For example, if the websiteadministrator's browser has a language preference setting of Spanish,then the market may be defined as United States—Spanish, for example.

Other information that may be used by server 106 to determine a targetmarket for the website 104 of the website administrator 110 includesinformation describing a business associated with the website 104. Theaddress of the business can be used to identify a location and, thereby,a target market for the website 104, for example. Similarly, ifaccessible to the server 106, information describing the sales activityof the business, such as the predominant locations in which customersreside or to which products are shipped, can be used to determine thetarget market. In some cases, the information describing the businessassociated with the website 104 may be gathered via a user interfaceprovided to the website administrator 110 by the server 106. The userinterface may prompt the website administrator 110 to provideinformation such as the billing address for the business, which may beused to calculate a target market. In some cases, the websiteadministrator 110 may be prompted to explicitly specify the targetmarket for the business and/or the website 104. For example, toillustrate, FIG. 2 shows an example user interface enabling the websiteadministrator 110 to provide information describing the businessassociated with the website 104. The information provided by the user,such as the address and phone number (and, optionally, any otherinformation provided by the website administrator 110) may be utilizedto determine a target market.

Similarly, the web traffic to the website 104 can be used to identify atarget market for the website 104. By analyzing the origination point ofvisitors to the website 104, server 106 can determine the location ofthe majority of the visitors to the website 104. That location can thenbe used (e.g., via a lookup table) to determine the target market.Similarly, the language settings of the website 104 and the languagesettings of the visitors to the website 104 can all be used to assist indetermining the target market and/or selecting a particular language forthe target market. In some cases, the target market for the website 104may be determined in an ad hoc fashion, where a new target market iscalculated for each visitor to the website 104, where the target marketis determined by the location of the visitor and, if available, thevisitor's language settings.

In some embodiments, the type of device used by the websiteadministrator 110 to access server 106 can be used in determining thetarget market or will otherwise affect the determination of the targetmarket. If, for example, the device is desktop computer, which tend tobe less mobile than some other computing devices, it may be assumed thatthe desktop computer is located in the target market. In that case, thelocation of the desktop computer can determine the target market,including the language of the target market. If, however, the deviceused by the website administrator 110 is a portable device (e.g., amobile device), it is more likely that the website administrator 110 maybe traveling. In that case, because the device may not be located in thetarget market (or at least is less likely to be located in the targetmarket), server 106 may be configured to use only the language settingof the mobile device to determine the target market.

In some embodiments, the determination of the target market may be madebased upon data stored in cookies in a web browser of the websiteadministrator 110, a URL visited by the website administrator 110, theIP address of the website administrator, and/or an accept language ofthe web browser of the website administrator 110 (e.g., the languagespecified in an accept-language header communicated in requests for webpages issued by the web browser). Once determined, the target market canbe used to render any web page provided by the server 106 to the websiteadministrator 110 in a language compatible with the target market.Similarly, any user interfaces of any applications 114 served up byserver 106 to the website administrator 110 as well as any contentthereof may similarly be rendered in a language compatible with thetarget market.

In one example, the website administrator 110 may have an IP addressthat is located in Switzerland. As such, the target market may initiallybe set to a country of Switzerland. Then, the website administrator110's browser is analyzed to identify an accept language—this may benecessary because Switzerland has a number of predominant languages. Ifthe browser has an accept language of the default language (i.e.,German), the target market is set to Switzerland—German. But if thewebsite administrator 110 has a different accept language (e.g., Frenchor Italian), the target market can be set accordingly.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an example method by which a targetmarket for the website 104 of a website administrator 110 can bedetermined. In step 202 the website administrator 110 accesses server106. The website administrator 110 may communicate with server 106 tocreate a website 104 or to modify the content of an existing website104. In step 204 the server 106 determines whether the websiteadministrator 110 has explicitly selected or specified a target market.An explicit target market selection could be made using a pull-down menuprovided by one or more web pages hosted by the server 106. For example,if the website administrator 110 must log-in to a webpage beforeaccessing and modifying the website 104, the log-in screen (or a webpagesubsequently displayed for the website administrator 110) may allow thewebsite administrator 110 to explicitly select a target market.Alternatively, the website administrator 110 may provide informationwhile browsing other web pages provided by server 106 (e.g., productpages, e-mail services, other websites 104 maintained by third parties,and the like) that can be used to determine the target market.

If, in step 204 it is determined that the website administrator 110 hasexplicitly selected a target market, the method moves to step 206 wherethe server 106 sets the target market to that explicitly selected by thewebsite administrator 110.

If, in step 204, the target market has not been explicitly selected, instep 208 the server 106 determines whether the website administrator 110is accessing the server 106 with a mobile device. The determination ofwhether the website administrator 110 is accessing the server 106 with amobile device may be made by the server 106 analyzing the browsersettings of the device used by the website administrator 110 to accessthe server 106. Generally requests sent to the server 106 from thebrowser will have a “HTTP_USER_AGENT” Value in a header of the requestthat can be used by the server 106 to determine if the request is comingfrom a mobile device. If not (e.g., the website administrator 110 isusing a desktop computer), in step 210 the server 106 attempts todetermine the location of the website administrator 110 as well as anylanguage preferences of the website administrator 110. As discussedabove, the location can be determined by analyzing the IP address of thecomputer being used by the website administrator 110, though any othersuitable geolocation approach may be utilized. The language preferencesmay be established by the website administrator 110 via, for example,web browser settings.

If, in step 210, the server 106 is able to determine a location of thewebsite administrator 110 or the language preferences of the websiteadministrator 110, that location or language preference information isused to set a target market for the website administrator 110. Asdiscussed above, this may be done using a look-up table that translateslocation and/or language preferences into a target market.

If, however, in step 210 the server 106 is unable to determine eitherthe location or the language preferences of the website administrator110, the server 106 may prompt the website administrator 110 toexplicitly select or specify a target market in step 212. Onceexplicitly selected or specified by the website administrator 110, thetarget market is set in step 206.

Returning to step 208, if the website administrator 110 is accessing theserver 106 using a mobile device, the server will, in step 214 determinewhether the mobile device has a preferred country and/or languagesetting. If so, that preferred country and/or language setting is usedto set the target market in step 206, for example, by setting the regionof the target market equal to the country setting on the mobile deviceand the language of the target equal to the language setting of themobile device. If the mobile device does not have a preferredcountry/language setting, in step 216 the server 106 determines whetherthe mobile device has a preferred language setting. If so, thatpreferred language setting is used to set the target market in step 206.Again, this may be done using a look-up table that translates a languagepreference into a target market.

In some embodiments, however, because mobile devices have a higherlikelihood of being located away from the target market for the website104, the server 106 may be configured to ignore the country setting on amobile device, even if one is set. In that case, only the languagesetting (assuming that one is available) will be used to determine thetarget market.

If the mobile device does not have a preferred language setting, in step212 the website administrator 110 is prompted to explicitly specify atarget market. Once explicitly selected, the target market is set instep 206.

After the target market has been specified for the website 104 of thewebsite administrator 110 (e.g., using the method of FIG. 3), server 106can use that target market information to customize both the userinterfaces to the applications 114 that the website administrator 110may use in constructing, revising, and marketing the website and thecontent (including media 118 and widgets 120) that may be incorporatedinto the website 104.

For example, the user interface provided to the website administrator110 by one or more applications 114 may be rendered in the languageassociated with the target market. In fact, the applications 114 thatare made available to the website administrator 110 may be determined bythe target market so that one target market will cause a first set ofapplications 114 to be available, while a second target market willcause a second set of applications 114 to be available. Similarly, thecontent made available for incorporation into the website 104 by theapplications 114 may include only media 118 and widgets 120 suitable foror associated with the target market or may display media 118 andwidgets 120 suitable for the target market in a preferred placementwithin the user interface of the applications 114 as compared to lesssuitable media 118 and widgets 120.

In some situations, the server 106 may not be specifically configured toserve up content and applications 114 configured for the target marketdetermined, for example, according to the method of FIG. 3. In thatcase, the server 106 may instead serve up content and applications 114suitable for a different target market, where the language of the targetmarket selected by the server 106 is that same as that of the website104. For example, if the target market for the website 104 is a regionin Africa where English is the predominant language, but the server 106is not configured for that African target market, the server 106 mayinstead serve up content and applications 114 for the target marketUnited Kingdom—English (i.e., another target market sharing the samelanguage). Similarly, the target market France—Français may be utilizedas a default target market for other target markets having a language ofFrançais and for which the server 106 is not configured. In someembodiments, a default target market may be defined. If the targetmarket for the website 104 is one for which the server 106 is notconfigured and no other target markets of server 106 share the samelanguage, the default target market may instead be used.

In one example, an application 114 may include a website builder. Awebsite builder is a tool designed to assist a user in creating andmodifying content for a website. The website builder may display thewebsite's source code and allow a website administrator to modify thewebsite's source code directly, thereby enabling fine control of thewebsite's content, or provide a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG)interface that enables the user to edit the website in its finalas-rendered form. Sometimes website builders enable the user to switchbetween source code and WYSIWYG views of the website being createdand/or edited.

The website builder application may be provided, for example, via awebsite browser running on a conventional desktop computer system or alaptop. Alternatively, the website builder application may be executedvia a mobile device, such as a smart phone. In that case, the interfaceof the website builder application may be configured to be suitable fordisplay on a smaller screen and for user interactions involving tappingand dragging upon a touch screen. The website builder may be executed asa software program running on a computing device of the websiteadministrator 110 (e.g., as native software), or may run within a webbrowser (e.g., as a hosted software application), or combinationsthereof.

Initially, the website administrator 110 accesses the website builderapplication to create a new website. Upon accessing the website builderapplication, the target market information, if available, can be used toselect a preferred language in which the user interface of the websitebuilder will be rendered. The website builder application will thenprompt the website administrator 110 to select from a number ofavailable website templates to begin constructing the website 104. FIG.4 is a screenshot showing an example user interface for a websitebuilder application enabling the website administrator 110 to selectfrom a number of available templates 302.

The listing of templates 302 made available to the website administrator110 may be filtered and/or sorted using the target market information.In some embodiments, the templates may be sorted into categories 304that group the templates 302 based upon a template type. For example,there may be many different groups of templates suited to differenttypes of business websites and personal websites. Templates may existfor websites for law firms, crafts stores, family blogs, bike shops, andthe like. Each template category, therefore, can be associated with oneor more target market in which templates belonging to that category maybe popular.

Because different types of websites may be more popular in particulartarget markets (or some website-types may not even exist in particulartarget markets), the target market of the website administrator 110 canbe used to sort the categories 304 of templates 302 so that thecategories 304 of templates most relevant to the target market of thewebsite administrator 110 are displayed first in a preferred placementlocation within the listing of available template categories 304, withless popular template types being displayed in a less prominent positionor not displayed at all. In one specific embodiment, available templatecategories 304 are sorted alphabetically (though it may be possible tosort the categories 304 based on their popularity on a per-target marketbasis). Then a special category 304 designated “Recommended for You” isprovided that contains templates 302 that are specific to the targetmarket or otherwise particularly suited to the website administrator110. The templates 302 in the “Recommended for You” category 304 can besorted using the following logic: templates 302 that match both thelanguage and location of the target market are displayed first,templates 302 that match only the language of the target market and notthe location are displayed next, templates 302 that match the locationof the target market and not the language are displayed next, andfinally templates 302 that match neither the target market location northe target market language are displayed last.

Within a particular category 304 of templates 302, as mentioned above,each template 302 is associated with one or more target markets. Assuch, the templates 302 that are associated with the same target marketas the website 104 may be similarly displayed in a preferred position inthe website builder as compared to templates 302 associated with targetmarkets that do not match that of the website 104.

The preferred placement location for a category 304 or template 302 maycomprise any location in the listing of categories 304 or templates 302depicted by the website builder that may be more likely to attract theattention of a website administrator 110 using the website builder thananother location. The preferred placement location, as non-limitingexamples, may be determined by human factors, usability, or similarstudies, or may be a simple arbitrary or intuitive choice. Asillustrated in FIG. 4, it also may comprise a preferred placement of acategory 304 within a vertical arrangement of a plurality of templatecategories 304, perhaps at the top of a list of categories 304, orsimply a higher placement within such a list than the placement of othercategories 304. The preferred placement may therefore, as non-limitingexamples, comprise a top-most, bottom-most, or more centered position inany such vertical list.

Once a category 304 of templates 302 is selected, a number of templates302 belonging to that category 304 can be displayed for selection by thewebsite administrator 110. In a similar manner to that of the categories304, the templates 302 themselves, once depicted, can be arranged so asto give templates 302 associated with the same target market as that ofthe website 104 a more prominent position in the website builder thantemplates 203 associated with different target markets.

In the example depicted in FIG. 4, the target market is one in whichwebsites relating to pets and animals tend to be more popular than homeservices and construction. As such, within the listing of categories 304of templates 302, the category associated with Pets, Animals isdisplayed above the category associated with Home Services,Construction. In this particular target market, websites associated withbusiness, finance, and law may be extremely popular. As such, thecategory of templates dealing with Business, Finance, Law is displayedat the top of the list of available categories 304 of templates 302.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the user has selected the categoryBusiness, Finance, Law, resulting in templates 302 falling within thatcategory 304 being made available for selection. The listing oftemplates 302 shown in FIG. 4 may be similarly sorted based upon therelevancy of each template 302 to the target market. For example,templates 302 having multimedia (e.g., images or graphics) that depictscenes taken from the target market may be displayed above those thatinclude multimedia depicting scenes taken from other markets. Similarly,templates 302 including text of the same language as the target marketmay be displayed above templates 302 that include text in a differentlanguage.

The placement of a particular category 304 or template 302 may bedetermined (perhaps by software and/or scripts running on at least oneserver), which may be based upon the target market of the website 104and the target markets with which particular templates 302 or templatecategories 304 are associated. As described in detail above, thepreferred placement may comprise any location on a website builder userinterface that may be more likely to attract the attention of a userthan another location.

As an example, wedding announcement websites may be quite popular inIndia, but less popular in the United States. According, if the targetmarket for the website administrator 110 is India—Hindi, templatesbelonging to the category of wedding announcement websites may be madeavailable for that administrator (and, in fact, the category 304 ofwedding announcement site templates 302 may be given prominence in thewebsite builder), while if the target market was United States—English,those templates 302 may not be displayed for selection by the websiteadministrator 110 and the category 304 may be displayed at the bottom ofa listing of available template categories 304, if shown at all.

The available templates 302 may also be sorted based upon other factorsanalyzed in combination with the target market. For example, if thecustomer records 122 for the website administrator 110 indicates thatthe website administrator 110 is affiliated with a business, categories304 containing templates 302 associated with personal web pages (e.g.,family blogs, personal photograph sharing websites, etc.) may bedisplayed in a less prominent position than the categories 304 oftemplates 302 associated with small business websites (or not displayedat all).

Generally, each template will include some preliminary content that canbe used by the website administrator 110 to begin constructing thewebsite. Once a template 302 is selected, the content of the templatebecomes the website administrator 110 website, and the websiteadministrator 110 can begin editing and revising the content that waspreloaded into the template 302.

The templates 302 may include a number of pre-built web pages that eachmay include media 118 (e.g., images, video, sounds, and the like) and/ortext arranged within the template's web pages. In the present system,the media 118 and text incorporated into a particular template 302 willbe well suited to the target market that is associated with the template302. To the extent the multimedia includes written text or spoken words,the language can be the same as that of the language of the targetmarket of the template 302. To the extent the multimedia depicts scenesthat can be associated with a particular location, the locationassociated with the multimedia can fall within the geographical scope ofthe target market of the template 302.

For example, for a template associated with a target market defining aparticular country (e.g., Spain—Spanish), images of cities or towns willdepict Spanish cities or towns. Similarly, multimedia depictingindividuals will show individuals wearing dress and/or performingactivities associated with or consistent with locations falling withinSpain.

Consequently, when the website administrator 110 is presented with alisting of candidate templates 302, the listed templates 302 will tendto include multimedia and text familiar to viewers from the targetmarket, or at least those templates 302 may be displayed in a preferredlocation in the website builder as compared to other templates 302. Thisprevents the website administrator 110 from being presented withtemplates 302 that include content entirely unrelated to the targetmarket or language that likely cannot be read by individuals within thetarget market.

Depending upon the system implementation, templates 302 that includemultimedia and text not associated with the target market of the websiteadministrator 110 may either not be displayed, or may be displayed below(or in a position of reduced prominence) to templates 302 including morerelevant multimedia. In one embodiment, the templates 302 are sorted sothat the templates 302 displayed first are those that match both thelocation and language of the target market, templates that match onlythe language of the target market are displayed next, with templatesthat match neither the location nor language of the target market aredisplayed last.

In various embodiments, the templates 302 may be generated in real-timewith content (e.g., multimedia and text) that matches the target marketor the website administrator 110. In that case, the web pages making upthe templates 302 may be constructed as shells that specify the layoutand location of content (e.g., multimedia and text) within the webpages, but, rather than incorporate the content, instead include tags,codes, or other placeholders that, when a template 302 is displayed fora particular target market can be replaced by suitable content for aparticular target market.

The templates 302 may be associated with a single target market or, inother embodiments, may be associated with two or more target markets.For example, a template 302 may be associated with more than one targetmarket provided that the target markets are tied to same language. Forexample, a template may be associated with the target markets MX-es(Mexico—Spanish) and AR-es (Argentina—Spanish).

For example, FIG. 5 depicts an example webpage 400 from a template 302.In this configuration, the webpage 400 does not include content andinstead includes placeholders indicating where content should be placedwithin the webpage 400. In this example, the webpage 400 includes twoplaceholders for multimedia positioned at the top of the webpage(MULTIMEDIA 1 and MULTIMEDIA 2). The webpage 400 also includesplaceholders for text content positioned below the multimedia (TEXT 1and TEXT 2).

Content database 116 contains the content that can replace theplaceholders in webpage 400 when the template is displayed for selectionby the website administrator 110. For each placeholder (MULTIMEDIA 1,MULTIMEDIA 2, TEXT 1, and TEXT 2), database 116 stores a number ofdifferent pieces of candidate content (in FIG. 5, the content isreferenced via a uniform resource locator (URL)). Each piece of contentis associated with a particular target market. When depicting thetemplate for the website administrator 110, the most appropriate contentbased upon the target market of the website 104 is retrieved fromdatabase 116 and inserted into the template for depiction.

For example, referring to FIG. 5, database 116 stores a listing 402 ofcandidate images to replace the MULTIMEDIA 1 placeholder. Whendisplaying the template 302 containing the webpage 400 for the websiteadministrator 110, if one of the candidate images in the listing 402matches both the location and language of the target market for thewebsite 104, that image will be retrieved from the listing 402 indatabase 116 and inserted into the webpage 400. If none of the candidateimages match both the location and language of the target market, thefirst image that matches the language of the target market may insteadbe retrieved and used to replace the placeholder MULTIMEDIA 1. Finally,if none of the images match the language of target market, the listing402 of candidate images may include a default image that will replacethe placeholder. A similar process may be utilized to select the mostappropriate textual content for incorporation into the template.

In some embodiments, the website builder application will also enablethe website administrator 110 to incorporate one or more widgets intothe website 104. FIG. 6, for example, is a screenshot showing a view ofa website builder application that allows a website administrator 110 toincorporate one or more widgets into their website 104. In FIG. 6, thewebsite builder present a WYSIWYG interface enabling a websiteadministrator 110 to select and draft one of the widgets 502 to adesired location on a web page in the website 104.

In the present system, the widgets made available to the websiteadministrator 110 are filtered based upon the target market for thewebsite. Because some widgets 502 are more popular in some regions thanothers, widgets 502 that are more suitable for the target market of thewebsite 104 will be displayed ahead of widgets that are less popular inthe target market (or those widgets may not be displayed at all). Forexample, FACEBOOK may be popular in the United States and Europeancountries and would be available as a widget for incorporation into awebsite having a target market in those locations. But FACEBOOK may beless popular than RENREN in China. Accordingly, for target marketslocated within China, the widget FACEBOOK may be replaced by a widgetfor RENREN.

Not only can the listing of available widgets 502 be determined by thetarget market of the website 104, but the content of the widgets 502themselves can also be adjusted based upon the target market. Where thewidgets are available in multiple languages, for example, the languageof the widgets may be determined by the target market of the website104. In some embodiments, the target market information is passed to thewidget 502. Having received the target market information, the widget503 can then render content and functionality related to that targetmarket. Each widget 502 may be configured to respond differently to thetarget market information. For example, a FACEBOOK widget, uponreceiving a target market of India—English may redirect usersinteracting with the widget to the Indian website for FACEBOOK, forexample.

In some embodiments, the website builder application may enable thewebsite administrator 110 to select from a number of temporary orpermanent themes that may be applied to the website 104. The themes maybe temporary additions to the website 104 and provide one or morestylistic elements (e.g., images, audio, and the like) that can overlayor be inserted into one or more of the web pages making up the website104. The themes that are made available for selection by the websiteadministrator 110 can be filtered based upon the target market of thewebsite 104.

For example, if the target market for the website 104 is one in whichthe Christmas holiday is celebrated, the website builder may provide thewebsite administrator 104 with an option to have a temporary Christmastheme automatically applied to the website during the days of the yearassociated with the holiday. A Christmas theme may involve, for example,displaying a number of Christmas-themed visual elements within thewebsite 104, or incorporating Christmas music into the website 104during the Christmas season. Similarly, for target markets that utilizethe Chinese calendar, themes may be made available to automaticallydepict elements celebrating the Chinese New Year on the website 104 atappropriate times. Accordingly, one a temporary theme is selected by thewebsite administrator 104, the temporary theme may only be applied tothe website 104 for a determined time period.

After the website administrator 110 finishes using the website builderapplication to construct the website 104, the website administrator 110can publish the website 104 on server 106. If the website administrator110 already has a domain name for the website 104, the website 104 canbe published so that the domain name resolves to the website 104. Insome cases, however, the website administrator 110 may need to registera domain name before the website 104 is published. In that case, thewebsite builder application may be configured to suggest suitable domainnames to the website administrator 110. The suggested domain names maybe based, at least in part, on the target market for the website 104.For example, the suggest domain names may include domain names having acountry code describing a country that contains the target market.

In some embodiments, the website builder application may enable thewebsite administrator 110 to incorporate a shopping cart function intothe website 104. Where the website 104 advertises a number of goodsand/or services for sale, for example, a shopping cart may be providedto enable a potential customer to browse through the website 104 toreview the various available goods and services. After reviewing variousattributes of the goods or services being offered, including the priceassociated with the goods or services, the customer can add one or moreof the goods or services to their shopping cart. In this manner one ormore goods or services may be accumulated within the customer's shoppingcart.

When the customer has finished shopping, they can initiate a check outprocess enabling the customer to pay for the goods or services that havebeen added to the customer's shopping cart. The check out processinvolves the website 104 prompting the customer to supply informationenabling a monetary payment to be made in exchange for the goods orservices. In many cases this involves the customer providing a creditcard or debit card number that can be used to execute a payment. In manyother implementations, however, other forms of payment, such as giftcards, coupons, electronic money transfers, exchanges of electroniccurrency, deferred payment (e.g., in anticipation of taking possessionof the goods or services at a later date at which time payment may berendered), escrow, and the like, may be used to render payment at checkout.

Depending upon the market in which a particular transaction is takingplace, different forms of payment may be preferred over other forms ofpayment. For example, in the United States, credit cards (andparticularly cards relying on the VISA and MASTERCARD processingnetworks) are popular mechanisms for rendering payment. In contrast, inIndia, debit cards may be preferred over credit cards. In China,meanwhile, systems such as ALIPAY may be preferred methods of electronicpayment.

Because the preferred payments mechanisms may differ based upon thetarget market, the present system and method can use the target marketfor the website 104 to at least partially determine the configuration ofa shopping cart system that may be incorporated into the website.

FIG. 7, for example, is a flowchart illustrating a method forincorporating shopping cart functionality into a website, where theshopping cart is tailored to a particular target market for the website.In step 602, the website administrator 110 (e.g., using the websitebuilder application) requests that shopping cart functionality be addedto the website 104. Following that request the target market for thewebsite 104 is determined in step 604.

With the target market for the website 104 identified in step 604, instep 606 the preferred payment methods for the target market areidentified. The preferred payment methods may be identified, forexample, by consulting a look-up table that maps target markets to oneor more preferred payment methods. The preferred payments methods may beidentified in any suitable manner. For example, for a given targetmarket a number of historical transactions may be analyzed to identifythe preferred payment methods for the customers that entered into thosetransactions, which can then be defined as the preferred payment methodsfor that target market. Alternatively, the preferred methods may bedetermined by a governmental agency within the target market. Forexample, if a particular region (e.g., country) forbids a particularpayment method, that payment method may be disfavored for the targetmarket.

Once the preferred payment methods have been identified, a shopping cartfunction can be provided on the website 104 in step 608. The shoppingcart function allows a potential customer to add one or more items tothe shopping cart and then undergo a checkout process. Upon checkout thecustomer will be able to select one of the preferred payment methodsidentified in step 606 to process the transaction.

When performing the method of FIG. 7, steps 606 and 608 may be executedat the time the shopping cart functionality is added to the website104—that is, while the website administrator 110 is using the websitebuilder application to modify the website 104. Or, alternatively, steps606 and 608 may instead be executed when the website 104 is visited by apotential customer. In that case, if the listing of preferred paymentmethods for a particular target market should change, when steps 606 and608 are performed the updated list of preferred payment methods will beidentified. As such, the website administrator 110 would not be requiredto re-add the shopping cart functionality to the website 104 each timethe preferred payment methods for the target market of the website 104is updated.

In addition to adjusting the payment methods based upon the targetmarket of the website 104, the currency used to display any prices mayautomatically be adjusted to match the currency used in the targetmarket. Similarly, the prices themselves may be adjusted based upon thetarget market of the website 104. To facilitate the customer calculatingand verifying shipping costs, such shopping carts will display anattribute of the product such as its shipping weight and dimensions. Ifthose attributes are to be displayed, the target market can be analyzedto determine the most suitable units for depicting those attributes. Insome cases, when the customer attempts to check out and purchase certainproducts, an analysis can be performed to determine whether the productsare, in fact, legal for sale in the target market. If not, the check outprocess can be interrupted preventing the sale.

In some cases, historical records of a number of transactions executedthrough the website 104 may be analyzed to determine payment methodsthat are popular with the customers of the website 104. This may beuseful, for example, if a particular website 104 tends to enter intotransaction using payment methods that are not particularly popularwithin the target market.

In some cases, different target markets impose different legalrequirements on information that must be communicated to a customer atthe time of a transaction. The information may include details on areturn policy and information describing how the transaction will besecured and, in fact, the technology that must be used to secure aparticular transaction. In that case, the shopping cart functionalitymay be arranged to deliver any necessary information at the time ofcheck out based upon the target market of the website 104 as well asimpose security technology as required in the target market.

In various embodiments, the target market can be used to adjust the formthat a customer completes when making a purchase. If, for example, thetarget market is the United States—Spanish, the form may be displayed inSpanish, and include text boxes allowing a user to enter their US state.Conversely, if the market it United Kingdom—English, the form may bedisplayed in English and include a text box allowing a user to enter thecounty in which they live. In a similar manner, the target market can beused to adjust any units displayed at checkout. For example, to assist acustomer in calculating or verifying shipping costs, the anticipatedweight and size of the product being purchased can be displayed in unitssuitable for the target market.

In some target markets, it may be routine to add a tip to particularproduct or service purchases. Accordingly, for target markets wheretipping is routine, the shopping cart functionality may be modified(e.g., by adding a user input device enabling a user to specify a tipamount at checkout) to enable tipping. For target market in whichtipping is not customary or even offensive, the tipping option may notbe incorporated.

FIG. 8, for example, is a screenshot showing one view of a shopping cartfunctionality that has been configured for a particular target market.In the example of FIG. 8, the target market is Canada—Français. As such,the text of the screenshot is rendered in French, while the currencyamounts have been depicted in Canadian dollars. The user interfacedepicted in FIG. 8 includes mechanisms 802 for ensuring the security ofthe transaction. The particular security mechanisms made available mayalso be tailored to a particular target market. The user interface mayalso provide a link 804 enabling the shopper to learn the conditions ofthe pending offer, where the conditions may also be tailored to thetarget market.

As detailed above, a number of attributes of a website 104 can bemodified based upon the target market of the website 104. This mayinvolve modifying the content of the website to incorporate multimedia(e.g., images, sounds) and text associated with the target market.Similarly, any shopping cart function incorporated into the website 104may be adjusted based upon the target market to ensure customers have afamiliar experience during check out. As mentioned above, the targetmarket for a particular website 104 may be determined based uponattributes of the website administrator 110, the website 104, orvisitors to the website 104. The target market may be determined asingle time for the website 104 (e.g., at the time of creation) or maybe routinely reevaluated and updated or modified. In some cases, thetarget market can be calculated in real time with every visit to thewebsite 104. In that case, the target market may be determined by anattribute of the visitor, such as the location in which the visitorresides or the language preferences of the visitor. For example, for aparticular visitor to the website 104, the visitor's IP address can beused to calculate a location of the visitor. That location can then beused to determine a target market. That target market can then be usedto determine the content generated and transmitted to the visitor indisplaying the website 104 to the visitor. This may involve, forexample, incorporating content, such as multimedia and text, into theweb pages of the website 104 that is suitable for the target market(e.g., by populating a template with suitable media and text).Similarly, any attributes of any widgets or shopping cart functionalityincorporated into the website 104 can be adjusted based upon the targetmarket determined by the visitor's location. In this manner, a customerlocated in the United Kingdom wishing to purchase a product from awebsite 104 may have a target market of United Kingdom—English and wouldsee, upon going through a check out process, payment methods that arethe preferred payment methods in the United Kingdom and prices listed inBritish Pound Sterling. This would be the case even if the website 104would otherwise have a target market of France—Français.

In many circumstances, a website administrator 110 will undertake amarketing or advertising campaign to promote traffic to the website 104.To assist in such a campaign, the hosting product hosting server 106 mayprovide one or more applications 114 enabling the website administrator110 to initiate and manage a marketing campaign for the website 104.

When initiating a marketing campaign, different approaches can havedifferent levels of success in different markets. For example, in theUnited States and Europe, it can be very important to have a goodkeyword ranking with the search engine GOOGLE in order to drive trafficto your website 104. In other target markets, however, other searchesengines may be more powerful making it more important to have a goodranking with those search engines. Similarly, depending upon the targetmarket, it can be important to place advertisements upon different typesof websites or work with different advertising networks that are moresuited to the target market.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present disclosure, the advertisingapplication provided by the hosting provider for the website 104 can betailored to provide options and suggestions that best suited toadvertising the website 104 in the target market. The advertisingapplication, for example, may use the target market information topublish a newly created website 104 (e.g., constructed using the websitebuilder application) to the most popular listing services within thetarget market (e.g., the YELP listing service in US and the JustDiallisting service in India. The advertising application may also providesearch engine optimization (SEO) for the website 104 in the targetmarket.

Various embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in manydifferent forms, including, but in no way limited to, computer programlogic for use with a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, server computer, or generalpurpose computer), programmable logic for use with a programmable logicdevice (e.g., a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other PLD),discrete components, integrated circuitry (e.g., an Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC)), or any other means including any combinationthereof.

Computer program logic implementing all or part of the functionalitypreviously described herein may be embodied in various forms, including,but in no way limited to, a source code form, a computer executableform, and various intermediate forms (e.g., forms generated by anassembler, compiler, linker, or locator). Source code may include aseries of computer program instructions implemented in any of variousprogramming languages (e.g., an object code, an assembly language, or ahigh-level language such as C, C++, or JAVA) for use with variousoperating systems or operating environments. The source code may defineand use various data structures and communication messages. The sourcecode may be in a computer executable form (e.g., via an interpreter), orthe source code may be converted (e.g., via a translator, assembler, orcompiler) into a computer executable form.

The computer program may be fixed in any form (e.g., source code form,computer executable form, or an intermediate form) in a tangible storagemedium, such as a semiconductor memory device (e.g., a RAM, ROM, PROM,EEPROM, or Flash-Programmable memory), a magnetic memory device (e.g., adiskette or fixed disk), an optical memory device (e.g., a CD-ROM), a PCcard (e.g., PCMCIA card), or other memory device. The computer programmay be distributed in any form as a removable storage medium withaccompanying printed or electronic documentation (e.g., shrink wrappedsoftware), preloaded with a computer system (e.g., on system ROM orfixed disk), or distributed from a server or electronic bulletin boardover the communication system (e.g., the Internet or World Wide Web).

Hardware logic (including programmable logic for use with a programmablelogic device) implementing all or part of the functionality previouslydescribed herein may be designed using traditional manual methods, ormay be designed, captured, simulated, or documented electronically usingvarious tools, such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), a hardwaredescription language (e.g., VHDL or AHDL), or a PLD programming language(e.g., PALASM, ABEL, or CUPL).

Programmable logic may be fixed either permanently or temporarily in atangible storage medium, such as a semiconductor memory device (e.g., aRAM, ROM, PROM, EEPROM, or Flash-Programmable memory), a magnetic memorydevice (e.g., a diskette or fixed disk), an optical memory device (e.g.,a CD-ROM), or other memory device. The programmable logic may bedistributed as a removable storage medium with accompanying printed orelectronic documentation (e.g., shrink wrapped software), preloaded witha computer system (e.g., on system ROM or fixed disk), or distributedfrom a server or electronic bulletin board over the communication system(e.g., the Internet or World Wide Web).

In one embodiment, a method including receiving, by one or more computerservers, a request to access an application from a user, determining, bythe one or more computer servers, at least one of a preferred languageof the user and a location of the user, determining, by the one or morecomputer servers, a target market using the at least one of thepreferred language of the user and the location of the user, the targetmarket defining a language and a region, and rendering, by the one ormore computer servers, the application by modifying at least one of auser interface of the application and a content of the application usingthe target market.

In another embodiment, a method includes receiving, by one or morecomputer servers, a request to at least one of create and modify awebsite using an application from a user, determining, by the one ormore computer servers, a target market for the website, the targetmarket defining a language and a region, and rendering, by the one ormore computer servers, the application by modifying at least one of auser interface of the application and a content of the application usingthe target market.

In another embodiment, a system includes one or more computer servercommunicatively coupled to a network, the one or more computer serverincluding a processor configured to perform the steps of receiving, byone or more computer servers, a request to access an application from auser, determining, by the one or more computer servers, at least one ofa preferred language of the user and a location of the user,determining, by the one or more computer servers, a target market usingthe at least one of the preferred language of the user and the locationof the user, the target market defining a language and a region, andrendering, by the one or more computer servers, the application bymodifying at least one of a user interface of the application and acontent of the application using the target market.

In another embodiment, a method includes receiving, by one or morecomputer servers, a request for a web page from a user, the web pagebeing configured to enable the user to perform a financial transaction,determining, by the one or more computer servers, a location of theuser, determining, by the one or more computers servers, one or morepreferred methods of payment for a geographical region including thelocation of the user, generating, by the one or more computer servers,web page content in response to the request, the web page content beingconfigured to enable the user to use at least one of the one or morepreferred methods of payment to perform the financial transaction, andtransmitting, by the one or more computer servers, the web page contentto the user.

In another embodiment, a method includes receiving, by one or morecomputer servers, a request for a web page from a user, determining, bythe one or more computer servers, a location of the user, generating, bythe one or more computer servers, web page content in response to therequest, wherein at least one of an image in the web page and a text inthe web page are at least partially determined by the location of theuser, and transmitting, by the one or more computer servers, the webpage content to the user.

In another embodiment, a system includes one or more computer servercommunicatively coupled to a network, the one or more computer serviceincluding a processor configured to perform the steps of receiving, byone or more computer servers, a request for a web page from a user, theweb page being configured to enable the user to perform a financialtransaction, determining, by the one or more computer servers, alocation of the user, determining, by the one or more computers servers,one or more preferred methods of payment for a geographical regionincluding the location of the user, generating, by the one or morecomputer servers, web page content in response to the request, the webpage content being configured to enable the user to use at least one ofthe one or more preferred methods of payment to perform the financialtransaction, and transmitting, by the one or more computer servers, theweb page content to the user.

The present disclosure describes preferred embodiments with reference tothe Figures, in which like numbers represent the same or similarelements. Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,”“an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus,appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” andsimilar language throughout this specification may, but do notnecessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.

The described features, structures, or characteristics of the inventionmay be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. Inthe description, numerous specific details are recited to provide athorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled inthe relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may bepracticed without one or more of the specific details, or with othermethods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances,well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown ordescribed in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

The schematic flow chart diagrams included are generally set forth aslogical flow-chart diagrams. As such, the depicted order and labeledsteps are indicative of one embodiment of the presented method. Othersteps and methods may be conceived that are equivalent in function,logic, or effect to one or more steps, or portions thereof, of theillustrated method. Additionally, the format and symbols employed areprovided to explain the logical steps of the method and are understoodnot to limit the scope of the method. Although various arrow types andline types may be employed in the flow-chart diagrams, they areunderstood not to limit the scope of the corresponding method. Indeed,some arrows or other connectors may be used to indicate only the logicalflow of the method. For instance, an arrow may indicate a waiting ormonitoring period of unspecified duration between enumerated steps ofthe depicted method. Additionally, the order in which a particularmethod occurs may or may not strictly adhere to the order of thecorresponding steps shown. Some embodiments provided for are describedas computer-implemented method claims. However, one of ordinary skill inthe art would realize that the method steps may be embodied as computercode and the computer code could be placed on a tangible, non-transitorycomputer readable medium defining a computer program product.

Although the above discussion discloses various exemplary embodiments ofthe invention, it should be apparent that those skilled in the art canmake various modifications that will achieve some of the advantages ofthe invention without departing from the true scope of the invention.

The Abstract accompanying this specification is provided to enable theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally todetermine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and gist of thetechnical disclosure and is in no way intended for defining,determining, or limiting the present invention or any of itsembodiments.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a content database,the content database identifying: a plurality of media elements, eachmedia element in the plurality of media elements being associated with amarket selected from a plurality of markets, and a plurality of widgets,each widget in the plurality of widgets being associated with a marketselected from the plurality of markets; and a computer servercommunicatively coupled to a network, the computer server including aprocessor configured to perform the steps of: receiving a request toaccess an application from a user, the application enabling the user tomodify a content of a web page associated with the user, determining atarget market of the web page, identifying a set of relevant mediaelements, wherein the set of relevant media elements includes mediaelements retrieved from the content database that are associated withmarkets that match the target market, identifying a set of relevantwidgets, wherein the set of relevant widgets includes widgets retrievedfrom the content database that are associated with markets that matchthe target market, and rendering the application by generating a userinterface of the application that enables the user to insert at leastone media element of the set of relevant media elements and at least onewidget of the set of relevant widgets into the web page.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein the target market is defined by a geographicalregion.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the application includes awebsite builder application.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein theprocessor is configured to perform the step of rendering, by thecomputer server, a plurality of website templates in the website builderapplication, each website template being associated with at least onetarget market, the website templates being ranked within the userinterface of the application based upon the at least one target marketassociated with each website template.
 5. The system of claim 4, whereinwebsite templates associated with the at least one target market that isthe same as the target market of the web page are displayed in apreferred placement within the user interface of the application.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine atarget market of the web page by receiving an indication of the targetmarket of the web page from the user.
 7. The system of claim 1, whereinthe processor is configured to determine a target market of the web pageby analyzing an origination location of a plurality of visitors to theweb page.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configuredto determine a target market of the web page by: determining that therequest was received from a mobile device; and determining the targetmarket based upon at least one of a preferred language setting and acountry setting on the mobile device.
 9. A system, comprising: a contentdatabase identifying a plurality of content elements, each contentelement in the plurality of content elements being associated with amarket; and a computer server communicatively coupled to a network, thecomputer server including a processor configured to perform the stepsof: receiving a request to access an application from a user, theapplication enabling the user to modify a content of a web pageassociated with the user, determining a target market of the web page,identifying a set of relevant content elements from the content databaseusing the target market of the web page, and rendering the applicationby generating a user interface of the application that enables the userto insert at least one of the set of relevant content elements into theweb page associated with user.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein theplurality of content elements includes media elements and widgets. 11.The system of claim 9, wherein the target market is defined by ageographical region.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the applicationincludes a website builder application.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the processor is configured to perform the step of rendering, bythe computer server, a plurality of website templates in the websitebuilder application, each website template being associated with atleast one target market, the website templates being ranked within theuser interface of the application based upon the at least one targetmarket associated with each website template.
 14. The system of claim13, wherein website templates associated with the at least one targetmarket that is the same as the target market of the web page aredisplayed in a preferred placement within the user interface of theapplication.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor isconfigured to determine a target market of the web page by analyzing anorigination location of a plurality of visitors to the web page.
 16. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to determine atarget market of the web page by: determining that the request wasreceived from a mobile device; and determining the target market basedupon at least one of a preferred language setting and a country settingon the mobile device.
 17. A method, comprising: receiving a request toaccess an application from a user, the application enabling the user tomodify a content of a web page associated with the user; determining atarget market of the web page; identifying a set of relevant contentelements from a content database using the target market of the webpage; and rendering an application by generating a user interface of theapplication that enables the user to insert at least one of the set ofrelevant content elements into the web page associated with user. 18.The method of claim 17, further comprising rendering a plurality ofwebsite templates in the application, each website template beingassociated with at least one target market, the website templates beingranked within the user interface of the application based upon the atleast one target market of each website template.
 19. The method ofclaim 17, wherein determining the target market of the web page includesanalyzing an origination location of a plurality of visitors to the webpage.
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the target marketof the web page includes: determining that the request was received froma mobile device; and determining the target market based upon at leastone of a preferred language setting and a country setting on the mobiledevice.